I'm shooting you on purpose. : February 2018

I posted in here last almost a year ago to the day. Maybe that's what this will be now. A once a year blog. 2017 was a pretty busy year. Derek and I found out we're moving to Hawaii; we took a lot of trips; we sold our house; we got two new cats, only to give them away, along with our dog, last month; we lost grandma last week; Derek got a promotion in Army....normal life shit.

Let's recap in photographs. These did not get uploaded in any kind of order. They are far from chronological, they are not even close to geographically organized, they're just a mish-mash of time and place. And this list of my favorite photos is not even close to an exhaustive list of the photos I took this year (in fact, I don't have a single one of my NOLA photos in here, because that folder is somehow missing from my computer. It's the damndest thing), they're just some of my very favorites. And there are a lot of them. I'm not even sorry about how many of them there are, nor am I sorry that I am such a huge fan of myself.

Derek and I spent a couple of days in Chicago, and I wasn't wholly in love with it, if I'm being honest. It's an alright city, but it's not a place I'm at all going to piss myself if I don't ever get to return there. That being said, we did find the most amazing Nepalese place in Chicago, and I have been craving their food since we left. If you're ever in Chicago, go to Nepal House. Eat everything there. Anyway, of course photographers and non-photographers alike have to take photos of the bean (It's called Cloud Gate, did you know that? I certainly didn't, and I thought it was legitimately called "The Bean". Like a heathen), and while I definitely wanted to get that iconic view of it, I also wanted to look at it in a way that nobody else was, so I took a photo of it from the side. I didn't see anybody doing this, and to me, that means something. I've always put an emphasis on the unique, and while I may not have an original bone in my body, I love pretending like I do. So getting this shot, which I definitely love, was important to me. I'm glad it turned out. My husband got an AMAZING accidental shot of the bean, which I like more than this one, but I don't have a copy of it on my computer. I think it's the single best accidental shot I've ever seen to date.

These little guys are bubble tip anemones, and I love them. Depending on how puffed up they are, they either look like tits, or dicks, and I don't know about you, but that kind of versatility is enviable to me. Like a Mars commercial, you know? You can feel like a nut or a mound, and bubble tips have you covered. These chums live in the Austin Aquarium, which is a glorified pet shop, but hubs and I love it for getting some macro time in on a leisurely day.

Like I said, I needed that iconic view of the bean. The smudge on it is me and my shoddy editing skills. I didn't want to be in the photo, and I also didn't know how to use photoshop yet. I only included this photo because it was really cool to get in an expected, iconic shot of something literally every photographer in the world does. Mine doesn't stack up, but those assholes don't have a side shot, so they can suck my bubble tips.

Hubs made it a priority to take me to Shedd Aquarium, and if it's truth telling time, I didn't find it as brilliant as I'd been led to believe it was going to be. I definitely expected more, and I definitely wouldn't go back. But I do LOVE this jellyfish shot. I didn't alter the colors on it in any way, these were the colors they had swirling around the tank. I love the otherworldly feel. It's alien while being completely familiar.

Also at the Shedd, I loved how this anemone was hanging. It reminded me of this weird Play-Doh toy I had...it was a barber shop for people who looked like thumbs. Check it out. I loved the colors, I loved the look, and I ended up loving the photo. I didn't even have to edit it.

This was the first batch of photos I did last year, for a wedding I shot in Colorado. I don't know what it is about this shot, but I love it. I love it a lot.

From the same wedding, this photo was a complete accident. The girls in the background weren't paying attention to this groomsman at ALL, but with his stance, and their blurriness, it looks like he's walking away from a group of swooning ladies. It cracks me up every time. This was the first wedding I've shot without my husband as my second since we started our studio. I shot it with my friend Adam, and it was a disaster. I won't lie. But those two photos make my heart happy.

We found ourselves in Dallas, and I can't even remember what we were doing there, but I remember we stopped at a vegan bar, just for me. Derek and Gabriel weren't thrilled, but the food was REALLY fucking tasty, and Gabriel didn't give a shit about the food being vegan, because Puppybowl was on in the corner while the rest of the bar watched The Superbowl, and he was blissfully unaware that his quesadilla wasn't made with real cheese. We passed through Deep Ellum, and I just loved this sign, and the colors of it against the sky. It's not a good picture, but it's definitely one of my favorites from the year.

I'm pretty sure this little fellow was at Shedd, as well, and as underwhelming as I found the place as a whole, the rainforest exhibit was a standout for me. They had all of these delightful froggies, and I do love little froggies. I am ALMOST able to trick myself into believing I snapped this guy in nature as opposed to a domed terrarium, which is why it makes the list.

Another of the jurlyfish. Those colors were so lovely. I sat in front of the tank, caring not one whit that I was in everybody else's way. I was transfixed. Again, and I'm sure I'll repeat this several times, it's not a classically good photo, it's just special to me because I think it's pretty.

Really, this pick is more about my husband than anything else. He always exclaims over this photo every time he sees it, and says how much he loves it. Now, I don't know how the resolution changes when I upload something to blogger, or how closely these photos can be enlarged and inspected, but I will say of this shot that it's so fucking detailed that it's impossible for me to wrap my head around the idea that I shot this through glass, and not in the ocean.

The same wedding from Colorado. The only reason I love this shot is because it's in the middle of a fucking frozen ass lake. It's so quintessential Colorado wedding that I can't NOT love it. I love that they were so game to follow my crazy ass onto the middle of a frozen lake for an overexposed photo. Neither of them hesitated. I wish all of my brides were like that.

We didn't end up travelling to North Dakota for the eclipse like we wanted to, we stayed in Texas with Steffie. Our house saw 67.8% totality, I believe, and as much as I wanted to see all of it, and experience that for myself, this amount was still absolutely amazing and awe-inspiring.

Those are sun spots!!! How wild is that?? How fucking incredible is the universe?? Ugh. It is so fucking moving to be alive and to have the privilege of seeing things like this. If you're not amazed, get the fuck out.

So, my hubs, who is also a lovely photographer, had his photos used by the Waco Zoo in their Brazos River Country exhibit. For the ability to use his photos, he bartered us into a backstage tour of the zoo, and we got to see this gorgeous kestrel up close and personal. I very literally sat in front of her and wept a little bit, and Derek had to make apologies for his emotional wife to the zoo staff. I won't lie, part of me hoped that my crying would land me a raptor glove and the allowance to hold her, but no such luck. She's a beauty though, isn't she? It isn't the photo that gets this on the list, it's how close I was, and how lucky I felt in that moment to be that close to my idea of perfection.

I love pufferfish! What's not to love? They are perfectly ridiculous creatures. They never look magnificent, they always look sluggish and dumb, but it's so endearing. This dope lives at the Waco zoo, in the exhibit my husband's photography is used in.

The last time we visited the Waco zoo, the leopards were fucking, and it was hysterical to watch the alarmed parents get creative with shielding their children from it, and the laid back parents cackling at their perplexed children's reactions to the leopards humping. This was not the afterglow, this photo is from a different visit, but the story seemed like it needed telling.

This is a juvenile milkweed Assassin, and I LOVE this picture. The colors are a perfect balance, and he's just so cute and tiny!

Galveston's Pleasure Pier. Hubs and I travel there a LOT. I've told Derek that I can definitely see us retiring there, as it puts us in another frame of mind entirely. Almost like we become different people when we're there. We're not anxious or busy, we're just low key and happy and leisurely and present. This photo is so alive to me.

My husband had been lecture for using his tripod, and I am pretty sure he got yelled at by the security guard because he wasn't white, as we saw three other white guys using their tripods without getting yelled at, and they were DEFINITELY in his field of vision. Derek and I had to get creative with our long exposures, so I put my camera on the ground, pushed down, and hoped that I wouldn't shake the camera too hard, and that the waves underneath us wouldn't rock the pier for thirty seconds. I got my wish, much to my surprise.

Orchids are my absolute favorite flower in the wide world. I don't know what it is about them, but I love them. I will never turn down a chance to take a frame-worthy photo of orchids, and I got several this year. This is one of my favorites.

A lion's mane jellyfish. They are beautiful and deadly, and I admire that about them. I have a better picture of one, but something about this one strikes me more.

I cannot stress enough that I did not add any color to this jellyfish. At Moody Gardens (in Galveston), they have all of these tubes with jellyfish in them, and the tubes have LED lights flashing and changing on a rotation. The pink and blue were my favorites, and I'm so glad I managed a sharp shot through the curved glass.

House on the Rock. My favorite trip this year. This was an offshoot of our Chicago trip. We stopped and visited my sister in law, Heather (I fucking love her, she's delightful), and when I discovered that House on the Rock was only an hour from her house, I told Derek we had to go. I wouldn't be satisfied if we didn't. The House on the Rock features pretty prominently in American Gods, one of my favorite books of all time, so going to a place I've read about and been curious about for a decade plus was a must. I can't even describe what the house is like, all I can say is I was moved beyond words, I cried in the carousel room and ALMOST didn't get a photo because I just couldn't get it together emotionally, and it's a place you need to see for yourself. Even if you're not a Gaiman fan and have no idea what House on the Rock is, it's something that I think everybody needs to see. It's nothing short of orgasmically strange and curious and wonderful.

the infinity hallway at House on the Rock. It's far more jarring in there than this photo lets on.

The puppets were so fucking creepy, I adored them. Derek and I didn't plan out our day very well, and we only had three hours at House on the Rock, which was not even close to enough. I want to spend an entire weekend there, if I'm being honest, and I easily could. Maybe I'll bring the idea up to Derek that we should travel to see his sister before moving to Hawaii, so we can make House on the Rock a proper trip instead of a whim.

How can you not fall in love with this whimsical and terrifying marionette? He's fantastic! And he haunts my fucking dreams.

Oh, I loved the apothecary section of House on the Rock. It was so strange. They had old print ads for tapeworms, and they were so sexist and bizarre and surreal.

One of the small boxes that played out a scene if you put in a quarter. This guy blinked and blessed a drunkard, but I loved the still shot of him. It's like the kind of shot I'd take during a boudoir session.

It seems like saying the man who built House on the Rock was eccentric would be both an understatement, and needless, as most of the photos of his collection show how out there he was. But he also seemed so fucking intelligent and curious, and I fell in love with him immediately. He had walls and walls of books, and they were wonderfully old and I can only imagine that the smell was heavenly. He had read his entire collection, which may sound like nothing right now, but when you see his collection, it's nothing short of miraculous.

The mask collection was strange and beautiful. This one was my favorite. We didn't get a lot of time in front of this collection, because that walking line was very pushy and bossy, but I'm glad I got a shot.

Now kiss.

He had a wonderful camera collection, most of them brands I'd never even heard of. My husband seemed very comfortable with them brands on display, but I was quite lost. What an embarrassing moment for a photographer, I must say.

I had no idea Richoflex cameras were a thing, and I have since learned a great deal about them. Like they were, in fact, a thing.

These are Wayang Golek, Indonesian rod puppets. I did a lot of research into them after leaving House on the Rock, I was fascinated by them. I think they're gorgeous and strange, and I could have spent hours in their small gallery, photographing them better. As it was, House on the Rock was closing and we had to hightail it out of there.

One of the many disturbingly hilarious carousel horses decorating the walls in the carousel room.

The carousel. Oh, guys, the carousel. The room is so fucking big. It's like being in a waking nightmare, but in the best way. I don't know how else to describe it, other than it was everything I knew it would be, and so much more.

I chased these gulls into this lake sized puddle, and this one was my favorite. Galveston.

I was practicing wedding ring shots, as they are admittedly one of my weak spots as a wedding photographer. I happened to quite like this one of my ring and my husband's new ring (he lost his original, he says), so I kept it around.

It was three in the morning, we were exhausted, but I did Steffie's make up and took her photo, anyway. I'm glad I did. The photo could be sharper, but it was three in the morning. I was exhausted.

How big a narcissist am I that my photos and my husband's photos are what we hang in our house?

I really do love orchids.

The audacity of this bitch.

While most of the strange things from House on the Rock are delightful, the Four Horseman Carousel at the end is genuinely horrifying. Stoma lady here knows what I mean.

Don't worry, horse head lady, you'll find a mate soon!

I think you're an absurd human that is lying if you say you don't like butterflies. They're magical. These gorgeous specimens live in Waco. Well, lived. I'm sure they're dead now.